Teen Cop
by Lucillia
Summary: It is an established fact that Valin "Hal" Horn was 10 when his father left to fight in the Clone Wars in 22 BBY. It is also an established fact that Horn was already a CorSec officer when his son Corran was born in 18 BBY. There's no way in hell that people didn't notice his age, even though he had Jedi powers. Which begged the question of exactly how he got away with it.
1. Eighteen? Riiiiiiiiight

The Commandant of the CorSec Academy looked down at the recruit who had been sent to his office. He then took another look at the datapad which contained the boy's paperwork.

"Eighteen? Riiiiiight." he said as he studied the form.

Usually, the underage recruits with forged paperwork waited until they were about sixteen or so before enrolling, which meant that if they didn't do anything particularly stupid and get themselves caught, he could look the other way and let it slide. This time however...

"What's your name son?" he asked the boy who couldn't have been older than twelve or thirteen.

"Hal Horn." the boy promptly replied.

"Your real name, the name you were born with." he said sternly.

He was almost sad to see the kid go, since he'd gotten some rather phenomenal scores on the entrance exam, but he would have to do so. Perhaps, if someone lost the evidence when he was charged with forging official documents, he would see the kid again in a few years. He would have to send the child home now however, and hope nobody recognized him when he reenlisted in a few years.

"Valin Ha..."

The instant he realized that the boy's surname would be Halcyon like a certain someone who everyone knew had a kid named Valin despite the fact that he constantly denied it, he cut the boy off before he could finish. He wouldn't put it past one of the more eager supporters of the new Empire who was bucking for a promotion to bug his office. He'd known the boy's father, and what the man who'd recently died was. Now that he looked at the boy, there was no mistaking the kid for anyone else's son. There would also be no sending the boy home for being underage, because someone would start digging, and odds were that the boy wouldn't make it as far as his front porch before the Empire nabbed him.

"Ah, yes Hammond. We had one of your cousins through here five years ago. I'd forgotten about that genetic condition that slows your growth and aging. Since it doesn't adversely affect your health, I think I can feel safe in signing your waver. I have to ask why you have a different name on your paperwork." the Commandant said as he pulled out and signed a waver that would allow the child standing in front of him to get around the height requirement and complete the Academy training. He knew what the boy's father was, and one of those things his father had been before the war had been a damn fine CorSec officer. Hopefully, the son would follow in his footsteps.

"My mother got married recently and I took my new father's name." the boy said.

"Ah yes, Rostek Horn, good man." the commandant said as he handed over the waver.

The boy gratefully took the form from him and raced out of his office. He hoped he made the right choice. Being a Security Officer was dangerous work, and it was most definitely no place for children. But, then again, young Valin wasn't a child anymore, he hadn't been one since the day his father had been killed for treason, a treason he knew full well the man had not committed.

If he caught the brat using Jedi mind tricks on his Instructors though, he would be coming down on him like a ton of bricks.

When it came time for graduation, he would try to see to it that the boy got assigned to a station where people knew and liked his father. It would make things easier for the boy in the future if there was someone besides him covering for him.


	2. The Consequences of One's Actions

Head Academy Instructor Starside knew that there was more to Valin "Hal" Horn than was written in his records, and that there was no way in hell that the kid was actually eighteen no matter what his admission intake form and the supplemental documents the boy could provide to back up his story said. He'd tested the boy's DNA, and found none of the genetic markers that were common to humans and near-humans who grew and/or aged at a slower rate than normal humans did. There were however several markers that were common amongst Human Jedi.

His first thought had been that the boy who resembled a Jedi who had served in the CorSec before the war and the founding of the new Empire had used some sort of mind trick on the Commandant in order to be allowed to enroll in the Academy. He had gone to the Commandant with the hopes of either making him see what had been done and correcting matters or finding a way of rescuing him from the boy's control. He had left the man's office an hour later after agreeing to help the man in his little cover-up in regards to Horn.

If Horn was kicked out of the Academy, odds were that the boy would not survive long enough to reach his front doorstep, and that both his mother and his step-father who was a popular and well liked CorSec officer, and the former partner of the boy's biological father would both be killed soon after. The boy would have to remain in order to prevent this tragedy from happening. It wasn't like the boy wasn't doing well here though, the kid was breaking records left and right, including some that had been set by his father, and was shaping up to be a good officer in his own right despite his rather tender age.

Like most teenagers though, the boy hadn't clearly thought out the potential consequences of his actions, and was most likely unaware of the number of lives he had put at risk by applying to the CorSec Academy early. The child had not only put himself at risk, but he'd put his parents, the Commandant, and anyone else who decided to go along with this charade at risk as well. The Empire wouldn't take to kindly to there being a "Jedi" in the CorSec if they became aware of this fact, and all who harbored him would be at risk of imprisonment at the very least. Any who helped "Hal" could kiss their careers goodbye if he were caught. He would have to make the boy didn't get caught, and became aware of the danger his family, friends, and future colleagues were in, as well as able to think things through before acting before he graduated.

It would only end in disaster if the child were sent out into the field unaware of what could happen to him and the people around him if he didn't consider the consequences of his actions.

"You wanted to see me sir?" Hal asked as he enered the Head Instructor's office a couple hours later upon receiving a summons.

While the Commandant ran the Academy as a whole, Head Instructor Starside was in charge of the other Instructors, and pretty much only answered to the Commandant. Valin, who preferred to be called Hal, which was a reference to his father's surname, had only seen the man in passing before. He was somewhat worried about why he was called to the man's office, especially since he'd pulled a prank on one of his fellow students who had been a jerk to him less than an hour earlier.

"Yes, I did." the man said, looking down at him sternly. "I was curious as to your reasoning for applying to the Academy."

Hal wondered exactly what he had done to catch the man's attention. He had been keeping on top of his studies, in fact he had been doing better than keeping on top of his studies, and his instructors had had nothing but praise for him. To his face that was. Had he been doing something wrong without realizing it?

"I want to be a CorSec officer like my father." Hal said, hoping the man interpreted that to mean his step-father Rostek. His father's name had been removed from his birth certificate and replaced by Rostek's shortly after the adoption.

"And, you didn't care about the risk you placed your friends, family, and the people around you in?" the man asked.

"Risk?" Hal asked, confused.

"I'm already aware of what you are. Should your cover be blown through whatever means, what do you think will happen to the people you care for, and who care for you, and the people who knowingly participated in this little charade until then?" the man replied.

Hal rapidly paled as he thought about what would happen if the Empire which had killed his father ever became aware of what he was. Those who had been found harboring Jedi were being made an example of in the news, and he'd already started hearing stories about the Empire hunting down and killing Force Sensitives who weren't Jedi.

_Good _Starside thought as he watched the implications of the boy's actions hit the child. _I can get through to him._


	3. Meeting the Boss

The CorSec station chief looked down at his newest officer who would be starting today. They had opened up recruitment into the Corellian Security Force to people as young as eighteen during the Clone Wars after they had lost a significant number of their officers, a good portion of them being lost to Separatist recruitment drives. Before then, you had to be at least 21 before you were admitted, and nobody would have gotten away with something as blatant as this...

Every year, as he got older, and the recruits started looking younger and younger, but none looked quite so young as the young man standing in front of him.

Rostek had actually expected him to believe that this brat who hadn't yet hit his growth spurt was really eighteen? For the gods' sakes, the kid looked like a ten year-old. How the hell he had managed to con the guys at the Academy into accepting him without there being a great deal of money riding on the outcome, he didn't know. And, since nobody he knew was gloating over the massive jackpot he'd one because "Rostek's son" had graduated the Academy at an exceedingly young age, he would probably never know.

The kid who was the spitting image of his late father apparently caught on to his skepticism, because a moment later he suddenly found himself looking at someone who was about a foot taller and looked to be the eighteen years of age that the little brat was claiming himself to be.

Halcyon's illusion tricks had been quite the party entertainment back in the day, and it seemed that his boy was just as skilled as his father who had once scammed him out of nearly a hundred credits when he'd passed off a ten credit chit for one of a higher denomination.

"Horn!" he shouted. "Pull one of your dad's mind-tricks on me again, and I'll throw you out of an airlock without a vac suit!"

"Hal" rapidly paled and shrank back to his original size.

"I-It's not for you, it's for when I go out on patrol and...I just wanted to show you that I'm not entirely stupid, and that I have at least some idea of what I'm doing since..." the kid said, looking rather nervous and somewhat frightened.

"Yeah, well, what I said still goes." he said before dismissing the boy from the office, hoping that having the kid here wasn't going to be half as much trouble as his instincts were screaming he would be.

Still pale and somewhat shaken, the boy left the office and went out into the bullpen where he started acquainting himself with his desk and his new partner. Based on the fact that the man hadn't commented on how young he was, he had a sneaking suspicion that the new partner was getting the full force of that illusion trick that the boy had dropped around him.


End file.
